8 Unanswered Questions from Overwatch’s Sombra Reveal

It feels like Overwatch fans have been waiting forever for the release of the new character, Sombra. Ever since players of the massively popular hero shooter noticed that a voice line from another character, Reaper, references the elusive Sombra they’ve been hotly anticipating her eventual release.

So finally after a long and tumultuous road ( *cough* Failed ARG *cough* ), this past weekend at Blizzcon 2016, Blizzard released the long-awaited character Sombra in spectacular fashion:

With the new short, we are introduced to Sombra and how she fits into the Talon terrorist organization and the world at large. However, as much as her introduction gave us some much needed answers, it does raises up a handful of new questions. Here are some of our biggest ones with some of our best guesses thrown in as answers!

Why does Reaper trust her so much?

In the animated short Infiltration, it establishes Sombra as a key cornerstone of Talon. She is shown as its primary espionage and intelligence operative and as such she holds a lot of power and stake in the clandestine organization. However, it is also revealed that she is just using Talon to further her own objectives, even committing straight up sabotage in the mission against Reaper and Widowmaker.

This begs the question: Why does Reaper trust Sombra so much? He basically assigns her the “failsafe” role in the mission, to ensure that the hit on Chairwoman Volskaya is carried out. On top of that, He believes Sombra at her word when she reports “the target escaped” despite clearly being locked alone in an enclosed room with her. Reaper also painstakingly tolerates Sombra’s little antics like closing the door on him at a crucial juncture in the mission. Even in the game, his voice line that goes “Where’s Sombra when you need her?” reeks of dependency.

Think about it, Reaper is a part of Talon, a global terrorist organization. As such he is practically steeped in the world of deception and subterfuge. Even before that, as Gabriel Reyes, he headed the black-ops counterpart of Overwatch, Blackwatch which also dabbles in the realm of the covert and clandestine. He should be at least suspicious that Sombra, the sly, deceptive hacker, is throwing them for a loop.

It might be possible that Sombra has proven her unquestionable loyalty somehow through the years or some extreme gesture of good faith to Talon. It could also be possible that Talon is on to her game and is just using her for her abilities.

Which leads us to..

Does Widowmaker trust her?

Also in the animated short, Widowmaker is shown perched on high with her Infra-Sight turned on and ready to take the shot on Chairwoman Volskaya. The alarm blares and Widowmaker is unable to connect. After Reaper is cut off, it falls to Sombra to carry out the mission. And as we all know by now, She doesn’t follow through and blackmails the good Chairwoman instead.

Quick Question: Is Widowmaker’s Infra-Sight still on? Because if it is then wouldn’t she have seen Sombra point her gun at Volskaya and not take the shot? Then proceed to remove her earpiece and harmlessly prance around her victim before finally touching the Ms. Volskaya’s nose and teleporting out to report that the latter had escaped?

It could be possible that maybe the Safe Room they were in was lead-lined or, in one way or another, able to prevent Widow’s vision from seeing in or maybe she was distracted helping out Reaper as he was fighting the new Svyatogor Mech.

However if she did see, this could play into the theory that Talon, or at the very least Widowmaker, knows what Sombra is up to. This also sheds a new light on when Widowmaker quips to Sombra that they “…dont have all day, Hurry up”and Reaper silences her. The two ladies could be at odds with each other behind the scenes and are frequently quarreling with each other to Reaper’s dismay. This could also mean that there might be some dissonance with the Talon ranks and that all is not well within the organization.

Did Reaper just take down a whole mech on his own?

‘Cause daaayuum…

Just how good of a hacker is Sombra?

It is evident that Sombra might possibly be this world’s most brilliant technological mind. Think about it: In the world of Overwatch, technology has progressed to a point wherein Artificial and even Actual Intelligence exists. There are literally sentient beings like The Anubis A. I. and the Omnic God Programs, that almost ended the world in a vicious, hard-fought war against humanity. In that war, the only major country that didn’t fall was Russia. The red nation’s might was so strong against the Omnics that it even used Giant Mechs to combat the machines. This means that Mother Russia used incredible safeguards on their tech to protect against all forms or hacking and cyber-warfare that even ACTUAL CYBERNETIC BEINGS can’t get through.

And Sombra was rolling her eyes at it.

This also brings us to another point..

Why does Sombra need Volskaya?

It’s clear that Sombra can easily hack anything the Russians can make at this point. So gaining information is clearly not her motivation in blackmailing Ms. Volskaya. It’s possible that Sombra needs the latter for something she can’t do on her own something more rudimentary and basic such as her factory’s production and mechanical skills. The Hardware to Sombra’s Software.

Off the top of this Gladiator’s head, he’s thinking big things like maybe an antenna of sorts to boost the reach of Sombra’s hacking/jamming signal to colossal proportions. Or maybe Sombra wants a mech of her own.

I mean, who wouldn’t?

One thing’s for sure: Sombra’s got big plans.

How exactly is Zarya supposed to deal with Sombra?

I mean really?! As it stands from a game standpoint, it would seem like Zarya would be severely trounced by Sombra. Zarya gains most of her utility and value from her abilities. Her Barriers not only allow her to absorb damage and protect her teammates but it also boosts her attacks. Without any power Zarya’s guns feels less like a Proton pack and more like a garden hose. Her ultimate ability would suffer as well because as it stands even a good Zarya can only pull off maybe 2-3 Graviton Surges in a game. Imagine if Sombra EMP’s that sh*t everytime?

So again. How exactly is Zarya supposed to deal with Sombra?

What is this?!

In the Sombra Origins animation, its is revealed that Sombra is chasing after the people who “Run the world” and this glorious web of secrets is shown.

Here are some notable points:

Counter-clockwise you can see the various logos of big organizations and corporate entities in the World of Overwatch. They are: The Lumerico Corporation; Volskaya Industries; an Unknown Entity possibly an Omnic Extremist group of some sort; Talon and Overwatch.

At the center of the web lies an Eye-like the symbol of the entity who managed to find and shut down Sombra in her early hacking days. This caused her to wipe all traces of her identity from all of the World’s data sources and also upgrade her tech to its current form. It is safe to assume that the Sombra’s End Goal is to discover who or what this entity is and to somehow control it and pull its strings.

In the Lumerico Thread, you can see the gentleman to left might quite possibly be Guillermo Portero, the Chairman of Lumerico. To the lower right is the Los Muertos gang which Sombra manipulated into taking down Lumerico. The controversial Sombra ARG focused on hacking in to Lumerico’s Dorado plant, with the help of its players in the hopes of stopping its opening. Sombra was successful with this and its safe to say she is done with this phase of her plan by now.

The Volskaya Thread shows Katja Volskaya along with presumably her husband and daughter. Katja is also shown to be linked to an unknown Omnic, possibly the same one she is getting her technology from in the Infiltration Short.

Below the unknown Omnic, is a machine that Sombra just discovered the plans for at the beginning of Infiltration:

The distinct 3 lights show appear in the second Data window and matches the one in Sombra’s web. It would appear that Volskaya Industries and and the Omnics are working on a secret project of some sort to the benefit of the mysterious Omnic Organization.

More on the Omnic Organization: 1 mech removed along the web, the Doomfist is clearly seen in to be linked. The Doomfist is a mysterious artifact of unknown power wielded by 3 different people according to Overwatch lore. It’s is extremely curious why this item is of incredible value in the Overwatch Universe with various groups wanting to claim it for themselves. But more on that later.

Its interesting that the closest by proximity to the Eye Entity is Talon. Like the organization that Sombra is currently in. This gladiator suspects that much like her Los Muertos play, Sombra is again using another organization to get closer and eventually take down another one. At the moment, it seems to be effective as she is so close to getting what she wants and Reaper and the others don’t seem to suspect a thing.

and finally, Overwatch. I’m sure you can work out all the basic characters and threads here, so on to the advanced stuff! The robot to the left from Reinhardt is probably Athena. She’s Overwatch’s main A.I. and is the voice of the actual game. To the right of Genji is the ShimadaClan with Hanzo, who apparently has not joined Overwatch as of yet as well as an unknown individual. On Pharah’s side is the HelixSecurities logo, Pharah’s old unit and then next to it is possibly the Anubis A.I. from the Mission Statement comic.

What is Talon’s End Goal?

Not much is know about the mysterious Talon organization apart from Reaper, Widowmaker and Sombra being involved with it. Even more curious is the organization’s motives. If their recent activities are any indication then they seem to be all over the place. First they try to steal the Doomfist from a Numbani museum. Then they raid Watchpoint Gibraltar for the Overwatch Agents List. They then successfully assassinate Mondatta, an omnic peace advocate during his speech in King’s Row. If we consider this for a second it would appear that Talon is on the Anti-Omnic side of the Bots vs. Humans argument. However, fast forward a couple of shorts later and we see them in Infiltration trying to kill one of the Human’s biggest and strongest advocate. What gives?

It would seem like Talon just wants another War on their hands and are inciting chaos on both sides of the political situation to goad them into firing the fist salvo. However, to what end? How does another great conflict benefit them?

Is Sombra Alejandra?

Ahhh yes, the big question. One that’s been on everyone’s minds ever since people first caught wind of Sombra. The truth is that there still isn’t any definite proof of whether or not she is the girl in the Hero animated short. There are however facts that support the theory and they are as follows:

Both are hispanic or possess latin origin. Both live and operate for the most part in Dorado, Mexico.

Both have interacted in some way with the Los Muertos gang. In Hero, a gang member knows Alejandra by nickname and calls her “Alej” as she passes by. In the Sombra Origins vignette, she is shown to have infiltrated and coerced the Los Muertos gang to incite a revolution against the local Lumerico Corporation.

The facial features match to some degree. Moles and other markings can possibly appear at a later age.

The timeline could be a tight fit as when Alejandra was “not a child but nowhere near grown up” Soldier 76 was already active as a vigilante.

The fact of the matter is its still too indefinite to prove or disprove the theory. In the game world, Sombra has erased all traces of her true identity across all information sources available (including Blizzard’s own files, apparently). Hopefully, Sombra slips up and we find out more of her backstory, its highly unlike…

Raffy Leynes is the Gladiator-in-Chief of Geekend Gladiators. He a geek of all trades (master of fun).He loves videogames, comicbooks, movies, cartoons, wrestling, science and art. Lately, he’s been liking his geekery with a dash of “Indie”. He doesn’t know what the f*ck musings are but he is told he does them on hisInstagram, Facebookand Twitter.